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The After Party

Anton DiSclafani (Goodreads Author)

3.30 · Rating details · 8,394 ratings · 964 reviews

From the nationally bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls comes a story of 1950s Texas socialites and the one irresistible, controversial woman at the bright, hot center of it all.

Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Tall, blonde, beautiful, and strong, she dominates the room and the gossip columns ...more

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Hardcover, 384 pages

Published May 17th 2016 by Riverhead Books

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May 24, 2016 Bill Kupersmith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-stars-in-2016, me-emma

Sir Walter Scott knew that a best setting for a historical was 60 years back, long ago enough to belong to another world, but still within living memory. In the case of The After Party, that living memory is mine. I lived in the very place & time the story is set = the River Oaks area of Houston, Texas in the 1950s. When the narrator Cici mentioned Troon Road I thought, OMG, we could have been neighbors. That’s only one block away; when my brother or I were out late & our mother, lying awake, he Sir Walter Scott knew that a best setting for a historical was 60 years back, long ago enough to belong to another world, but still within living memory. In the case of The After Party, that living memory is mine. I lived in the very place & time the story is set = the River Oaks area of Houston, Texas in the 1950s. When the narrator Cici mentioned Troon Road I thought, OMG, we could have been neighbors. That’s only one block away; when my brother or I were out late & our mother, lying awake, heard the Morgan’s motor rev as we downshifted for the turn onto Chilton, she knew she could stop worrying and go to sleep. If the principal characters, Joan & Cici, had younger siblings, they might have been belonged to the same group of teenaged friends I belonged to that formed in the summer of 1957; over the following yearswe were to live our own private Secret History.

Like her characters, my family bought clothes @ Battelstein’s & Sakowitz’s (when I went to prep school in New England my clothes-snob roommate made fun of the labels; I labeled him “the littlest Brooks Brother”!) Just as soon as the Shamrock Hotel opened, my parents joined the Cork Club & I can well-remember that huge pool with that terribly high diving board (I only dared go off the board @ mid level), & went to deb parties there when I was an undergrad. Reading this book, I felt like a T-Rex visiting a natural history museum. For moments it almost felt like I was back in Texas then.

Anton DiSclafani's The Yonahlosee Riding Camp for Girls is one of the best school stories that I have ever read. The After Party belongs to the next generation; Joan & Cici are living out as 20-somethings the kind of life Yonahlosee girls were being prepared for: “good” marriages (@ least in Cici’s case) to men who worked for oil companies (3 of my friends fathers were with Humble Oil), membership in the Junior League & the River Oaks Country Club. In real life girls like Joan & Cici did @ least try college: Texas - “The University” - pledging Pi Phis or Kappas & perhaps marrying a Kappa Alpha, or Hollins or Sweetbriar, majoring in playing bridge & dating boys from W&L or UVA majoring in alcoholism. Joan & Cici would have had more of a cultural life too - going to plays @ the Alley Theatre & hearing the Houston Symphony Orchestra, which was already trying to become respectable.

Actually, Houston CC was the snob club & not everybody was a nouveau riche parvenu like Glenn McCarthy. There was some “old money” (Galveston before the hurricane) like the Andersons & the Claytons. But I am utterly overwhelmed by how much research Anton DiSclafani must have put into this book. did she unearth a huge cache of ancient issues of the River Oaks Times? I even caught the bartender’s reference to the Fortiers’ locker @ the Cork Club - the Byzantine Texas liquor laws made club membership imperative if you wanted to entertain. I’m not sure the author quite got the liquor laws right either (there was also something called a “liquor pool” - quite appropo for these characters!) Of course then I was too young to drink - legally that is.

I got too caught up in the nostalgia & historical reconstructions to pay all that much attention to the plot or the characters. The narrator Cici is intended as Joan’s fides Achates living in the shadow of her glamorous but mysterious friend. Had I listened more carefully I should have figured out the story behind the disappearance of the teenaged Joan (something similar would happen with one of us). Neither of them quite reached the tragic level of Thea Atwell in Yonahlossee. (Which reminds me - the Fortiers certainly would have owed a ranch, with horses - maybe cattle - & nobody ever called “the Fat Stock Show” - pronounced as a cretic - “the Houston Fat”!) But my GR friends can do the criticizing. I loved this book for the memories. Next time I read a story set in one of my favorite historical periods such as England in the ‘40s, I’ll be aware of how close an author can get to reconstructing what it was really like to live in that time in the place. So close, but not quite. Thank you Anton DiSclafani for all your hard work. You got it almost perfect! ...more

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Aug 10, 2016 Laura rated it did not like it

Ok, ok, you can quit thanking me. Yes, I read the book so you didn't have to. There is only one positive thing about the book....it's over! ...more

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Sep 15, 2015 Julie Ehlers rated it liked it

Shelves: galleys, literary-fiction

I was a fan of Anton DiSclafani's The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and was very excited to get my hands on this one, which sounded even more interesting to me. Perhaps my expectations were too high, because while there was much I liked about this book, ultimately I was disappointed--although I'm having a little trouble sorting out the source of my disappointment.

The After Party is about two women who become friends in early childhood and stay friends into their mid-twenties, in 1957 (when m I was a fan of Anton DiSclafani's The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and was very excited to get my hands on this one, which sounded even more interesting to me. Perhaps my expectations were too high, because while there was much I liked about this book, ultimately I was disappointed--although I'm having a little trouble sorting out the source of my disappointment.

The After Party is about two women who become friends in early childhood and stay friends into their mid-twenties, in 1957 (when much of the book's action takes place). Both of these women are named Joan, but when they start school, the teacher decides she can't have two Joans in the classroom and promptly rechristens our narrator Cecilia (her middle name), or Cece for short. This renaming is a neat (maybe too neat?) metaphor for the relationship between the two women: Cece's identity is always subsumed by the identity of the flashier, bolder, more beautiful Joan. What's more, Cece likes it that way.

The novel takes place in the Houston suburb of River Oaks, a high-society place that felt positively claustrophobic and suffocating to me. As with The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, the plot moves slowly, creating a feeling of being immersed in this world and the lives of its people. You have Cece, who wants nothing more than to be a mother and wife and stay in River Oaks forever; she's no ahead-of-her time revolutionary, and she doesn't even chafe under the restrictions the women of her world live with. She just wants her life to be settled. On the other hand, you have Joan, who does chafe under these restrictions and who attempts to rebel against them as much as she can. Joan is also hiding a BIG secret, and Cece's desperation to learn this secret is a large part of the plot's forward momentum.

I was mixed on both Cece and Joan. I could understand why Cece submitted so willingly to the restrictions her culture put on her; as the book makes clear, her childhood was quite turbulent (and some aspects of this were portrayed quite beautifully and movingly), and wifehood/motherhood/conformity clearly represented peace to her. I just didn't quite buy an intelligent character who never once questioned the limits on the lives of the women in River Oaks, and how they might have contributed to both her unhappy childhood and the unhappy life of her best friend Joan. But Joan was equally exasperating to me. She wanted something different from life than what she was getting in River Oaks; she wanted, as she herself put it, to be "where the ideas are"--New York, say, or Los Angeles. But she wasn't willing to work to make that dream a reality. She remained completely tethered to her father's money, was unwilling to be without it, and was therefore totally under her parents' thumb. As a result, her "rebellion" played out as having a lot of male suitors and sometimes making a scene at the River Oaks nightclubs. It was a Miley Cyrus-style rebellion: all reaction to her upbringing, no actual meaning behind anything she did. If she had had a few actual goals or original ideas, I might have liked her better.

Of course, Joan was also concealing the aforementioned BIG SECRET, which I was dying to learn, but which was ultimately a major letdown. Just think of the most soap-operatic secrets you can imagine, discard the most implausible ones, and you'll be left with the run-of-the-mill secret this book eventually reveals.

I do think my own expectations were part of the problem here. High-society women in the 1950s were privileged but had a limited lot in life; that's a fact. For me to expect more modern attitudes from either heroine is not exactly realistic, and the fact that DiSclafani writes within these limits is actually quite interesting and a more difficult task than modernizing her characters and making them ahead of their time. But I don't think I'm at fault for expecting something a little more complex and satisfying from the secret, given the way it was built up throughout the book.

I know there were plenty of people who weren't fond of the slow-moving nature of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, and those people probably won't like this one either. But fans of DiSclafani's first novel should check this one out; for all its flaws, it does have the same beautiful writing and immersive quality as its predecessor. While my experience with this one was mixed, I remain a fan of DiSclafani's writing and will happily check out her future offerings.

I received this ARC from the publisher via Goodreads. Thank you, Goodreads! ...more

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May 24, 2016 HistoryGeek 42 rated it liked it

It was ok. It started off really grabbing my attention but by the end I was so annoyed by the whole dynamic between Cece and Joan that I just felt "enough already". Joan is a narcissist and Cece is at best a clueless enabler and at her worst a total doormat. ...more

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May 22, 2016 Helen Finnigan rated it did not like it

But for the fact I was on bed rest while reading this, I would have never finished it. Slow-moving plot and damaged (yet still almost completely uninteresting) characters with upscale problems. By the time I got to the "big reveal", I didn't care. Skip this one. ...more

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Jun 04, 2016 Karen rated it did not like it

The narrator and narration are ceaselessly banal and shallow; the plot nonexistent.

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May 30, 2016 Liz marx rated it it was ok

Disappointing kept reading because I thought there would be some better character development. I wanted a better
Explanation of why joan turned out as she did.

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Feb 13, 2016 Ashley rated it liked it

The After Party follows the story of a young socialite in 1950s Houston. Cece Buchanan has it all: money, popularity, a husband who adores her, a loving son, and a best friend all women - and perhaps some men - are envious of. Cece has been attached to Joan Fortier at the hip since childhood. When the death of Cece's mother and the virtual desertion of her father leaves her without parents at fifteen, the Fortier family takes Cece under their wing and into their home. Cece and Joan have their wh The After Party follows the story of a young socialite in 1950s Houston. Cece Buchanan has it all: money, popularity, a husband who adores her, a loving son, and a best friend all women - and perhaps some men - are envious of. Cece has been attached to Joan Fortier at the hip since childhood. When the death of Cece's mother and the virtual desertion of her father leaves her without parents at fifteen, the Fortier family takes Cece under their wing and into their home. Cece and Joan have their whole lives planned, but not everything is as solid as Cece wants to believe. Joan disappears shortly before their high school graduation without a word only to almost just as mysteriously reappear a year later. Fast forward six years and Cece is as devoted to Joan as ever even though Joan - and Cece's husband - doesn't want her to be. Cece soon realizes that Joan isn't the person she has always thought and Joan may just be hiding a few secrets that could destroy her and her well to-do family.

I know that women in the 1950s were not as innocent as I would like to imagine they were, but I was honestly a bit shocked by the looseness of the high class group of socialites in this book. The main objective of these women was to marry men of well standing, which of course was no surprise for the 50s. To Cece, this was a perfectly acceptable goal in life, but to Joan - it was not. Joan wanted something more. She wanted to go where the ideas are. But, I honestly never saw any real effort from Joan. For the majority of the book she seemed liked a spoiled rich girl who was willing to hurt her parents through any means necessary - even if that means sleeping with half of Houston. And her big secret? It was frankly a bit underwhelming and predictable. (view spoiler)

Joan's behavior was deplorable, but I honestly found Cece's behavior to be even worse. As mentioned above, Cece had it all. Except Joan. Joan was the one thing Cece could never truly fully grasp, and it drove a wedge between Cece and her husband, Ray. (view spoiler) ...more

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May 20, 2016 Claire rated it really liked it

I loved the setting of this book - 1950s Houston: the Shamrock Hotel, huge mansions with beautiful gardens in River Oaks, the cocktails, the clothes, the big American cars. It was just so fun to read about that time and place. I also loved the writing. It was crisp and clear, and I was happy to pick up the book and to continue reading. I do wish the author had taken more risks with the plot, though. The tense, secretive mood of the book has you intrigued, but the truth, when you discover it, doe ...more

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Jun 19, 2016 Michelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016, historical

This book was perfection. 1950s Houston society, troubled girls, family drama, and fantastic writing.

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Dec 20, 2018 Stacey rated it it was amazing

I enjoyed this novel and especially liked the 50's time period. A lot of the book occurred in a Houston, TX hotel the Shamrock and the Cork Club inside. The Author's Note at the end added a nice touch after finishing as she described her connection to the Shamrock and Cork Club after all of her research.

This is a tale of two Joans. Inseperable and the very best of friends since childhood. One of them had a middle name and so she was called CeCe to tell them apart. As they got older, Joan and CeC ...more

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May 04, 2016 Obsidian rated it liked it

There really isn't much for me to say about this book besides the fact that it was an okay book, but not one that I would recommend or read again. I think that the synopsis set this book up like a very big mystery, but in the end, everything fell flat. I thought the whole book just limped to the end where I wondered what in the world was I supposed to get out of this book.

Told in the first person by CeCe Buchanan, we have her reminiscing about how she came to meet her best friend in the world, There really isn't much for me to say about this book besides the fact that it was an okay book, but not one that I would recommend or read again. I think that the synopsis set this book up like a very big mystery, but in the end, everything fell flat. I thought the whole book just limped to the end where I wondered what in the world was I supposed to get out of this book.

Told in the first person by CeCe Buchanan, we have her reminiscing about how she came to meet her best friend in the world, Joan Fortier. Both women's first names are Joan, but when they are in the same grade school as children, the teacher promptly changes our narrator's name to CeCe (cause apparently this is something people do? I don't know. I thought that whole thing was weird. How do you go from a Joan to a CeCe?) and she doesn't even mind, because in her mind, Joan Fortier was born to be a Joan.

The hero worship that CeCe has for Joan is way over the line to unhealthy. Frankly I would have probably given the book more stars if we actually had CeCe learning a thing. But instead, we have CeCe in love with Joan and her parents. CeCe wishes for the life that being a Fortier would entail. And even for a time she gets to live with them and take the place of a runaway Joan.

We are subjected to CeCe's weirdness anytime someone says anything negative about Joan (mutual friends and her husband) and her jealousy if Joan doesn't talk to her and involve her with all things.

I thought the writing was fine, but nothing to really write home about. It got a bit too purple prose for me there in the end. The flow was a drag to the overall book though. I think because there was no good stopping place for anything, the book just kept going and going and going. I really wish that the author had included two POVs one from CeCe and one from Joan. There seemed to be a lot of resentment that Joan was storing up and there also seemed to be mysteries still left unsaid that I really couldn't wrap my head around. Pretty much the gist of the whole book read to me, poor little rich girls and I was ultimately not feeling it.

The setting of Texas in the 1950s does not come alive at all during this book. Maybe because most of the book takes place at clubs, homes, and in CeCe's bedroom? I don't know. There wasn't much there there for all of the commentary on this being about Texas socialites in the 1950s.

The book just kind of ends abruptly. I think readers are supposed to see CeCe as better off now. But instead the book as a whole left me to think that she's still broken and needs Joan way too much. ...more

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Oct 21, 2015 Taryn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-release

I absolutely loved Anton DiSclafani’s debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, so I’ve been making gimme-hands ever since I found out she had a second novel coming out this spring. And even though The After Party isn’t likely to stick in my mind the way her first book did, it’s still really dang good. In it, narrator Cece has a singular fixation in her life: her best friend since childhood, Joan, who is wild even by MTV’s Real World standards, let alone the standards of her actual wor I absolutely loved Anton DiSclafani’s debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, so I’ve been making gimme-hands ever since I found out she had a second novel coming out this spring. And even though The After Party isn’t likely to stick in my mind the way her first book did, it’s still really dang good. In it, narrator Cece has a singular fixation in her life: her best friend since childhood, Joan, who is wild even by MTV’s Real World standards, let alone the standards of her actual world, which is oil-booming 1950s Houston. Cece spends almost all her time thinking about Joan, worrying about Joan, or cleaning up Joan’s messes. Even when she’s grown, with a husband and a baby, Cece’s life is more about Joan than anyone else, even herself or her own family.

Cece’s obsession, while unhealthy and maybe a bit creepy, is at least somewhat understandable—Joan is a fascinating character, elusive and enigmatic even while she’s the center of attention (and she’s always the center of attention). But Cece’s neediness occasionally drives Joan away, and because we’re limited to Cece’s perspective, Joan is always at a frustrating distance. An effective choice, if DiSclafani is trying to invoke in the reader Cece’s own feeling of never having quite as much of Joan as she wants, but decidedly less interesting than hearing Joan’s story from her own mouth.

This method of using a comparatively bland bystander character to narrate the adventures of the main attraction seems to be popular lately, and I can think of several books I’ve enjoyed that employ it (The Girls by Emma Cline and The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor come to mind, though there are others). In this case, though, I would rather have read about Joan without Cece as a lens. One of the aspects I loved most about The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls was Thea, the bold, sexy, risk-taking main character—a character not unlike Joan, in fact, now that I consider it. For my money, DiSclafani is at her best when she gives her most charismatic character the microphone.

More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com ...more

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Dec 02, 2015 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

I've been a fan of Anton DiScalfani's since her best selling debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, and have been eagerly anticipating The After Party. DiScalfani did NOT disappoint.

Set in 1957 Houston, The After Party follows the friendship of two women: Joan and Cece, who have been best friends since childhood. These women grew up together. They were there during pivotal moments in their lives from first loves to losing a parent, and through it all Cece places Joan on a pedestal. ...more

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Jun 27, 2016 Kasa Cotugno rated it it was ok

Shelves: era-early-mid-20th-century, arc, loc-usa-tx

Giving two stars because of some well written passages, but really, it's 1 1/2. I did like DeSciafani's first book, but this effort, which promised a reflection of society in Houston of the '50's, did not present either the era or the location with any specificity. Why Cece finds Joan so fascinating is beyond me, since neither character is presented as anything but cookie cutter. If I wasn't reading this to review, I wouldn't have gotten past page 20. ...more

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Nov 06, 2015 Tooter rated it really liked it

Shelves: goodreads-giveaways

Goodreads Giveaway. 4 stars.

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Jul 11, 2016 Reading with Cats rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf, abandoned-2016

Nope, can't do it anymore. Joan is a boring and shitty human being and Cece is a weird, stalkerish doormat. I got to 40% and was too exhausted and annoyed to continue. ...more

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Jun 25, 2016 Robin rated it it was ok

I'm not sure why I finished this book other than I can't bear to put a book down. The clinginess of the narrator was extremely off-putting. ...more

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Apr 01, 2016 Judy D Collins rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-releases, books-read-in-2016, audiobook, womens-fiction, anton-disclafani

Anton DiSclafani returns following The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls with her latest, THE AFTER PARTY - a world of glitz, power, glamour, privilege, and wealth in 20th century Houston—from past to present, a story of shifting identity, secrets, obsession, and at the heart –a timeless female friendship.

Set in the 1950s, in Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood (one of the wealthiest in the country), The After Party is centered around Texas socialites, frequenting the Shamrock Hotel’s Cork Cl ...more

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May 16, 2016 Patty rated it it was amazing

What it's all about...

Joan and Cece have known each other since they were in Kindergarten...practically. Joan...wealthy...not necessarily beautiful but outrageous in her behavior. Cece...the friend who needs her. Cece is sometimes referred to as Joan's "handmaiden". They kind of need each other but Cece always feels needier than Joan. If I started to analyze their relationship...it's weird...yes...it's a weird one. Cece tries to protect Joan but Joan doesn't seem to always need Cece's protection ...more

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Dec 25, 2018 Judy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction, bad-women-books, set-in-texas

This was my final selection for my self-created 2018 challenge to read a book a month from the last 12 years of my TBR lists. I have mixed feelings about it. I absolutely loved this author's debut novel, <>The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. This second novel, though it mines similar themes, did not quite measure up to the wonder of the first one.

Set in the 1950s uber-rich Houston, TX, neighborhood of River Oaks, it is almost a psychological thriller. Joan Fortier and Cece Buchanan have bee
This was my final selection for my self-created 2018 challenge to read a book a month from the last 12 years of my TBR lists. I have mixed feelings about it. I absolutely loved this author's debut novel, <>The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. This second novel, though it mines similar themes, did not quite measure up to the wonder of the first one.

Set in the 1950s uber-rich Houston, TX, neighborhood of River Oaks, it is almost a psychological thriller. Joan Fortier and Cece Buchanan have been best friends practically since birth. When Cece's mother dies, she is taken in by the Fortier family at 14 years of age, since her father had abandoned his wife and daughter and remarried.

As they move through high school, Joan becomes stranger and wilder every year while Cece becomes obsessed with their almost sister-like relationship. Thus the plot revolves around why these two act the way they do and whether or not Cece will follow her friend into self-destruction or take advantage of her good fortune to create the life she wants.

It is also a story about the truly horrible things mothers do in trying to keep daughters "pure" and "acceptable" and, truth be told, safe. An age old problem that is always made more tricky when the daughter is into sex and rebellion and not at all interested in being pure or acceptable. The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls was another version of that story.

I can't quite put my finger on why I liked The After Party less. The plotting was tight and good, though the characters were less well drawn. The atmosphere of oil wealth and privilege was clearly well researched but this time the author seemed more removed from the scene and her research overwhelmed the emotion. I found the ending weak and not completely believable.

Still, I do admire the author's unflinching ability to take on the disastrous results when mothers fail to help their children navigate puberty. That is how we end up with the whole ridiculous scene we still have when it comes to sex. Patriarchy is the more guilty party but Matriarchy follows close behind. OK, I said that, though I also think an enlightened matriarchy could solve the whole thing in a few generations. ...more

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May 10, 2016 Sheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: southern-fiction, advanced-readers-copy, first-to-read

This is a wonderful coming of age story about two young girls growing up in the opulent, oil era in Houston, Texas. It chronicles their lives from early childhood through mid-twenties. You have the beautiful, troubled Joan Fortier who everyone envies and adores but can't read enough about her latest escapades in the morning papers gossip page. She has always lived by her own set of rules which was quite scandalous in the 1940's and 50s. Where women were best seen and not heard, they were to marr This is a wonderful coming of age story about two young girls growing up in the opulent, oil era in Houston, Texas. It chronicles their lives from early childhood through mid-twenties. You have the beautiful, troubled Joan Fortier who everyone envies and adores but can't read enough about her latest escapades in the morning papers gossip page. She has always lived by her own set of rules which was quite scandalous in the 1940's and 50s. Where women were best seen and not heard, they were to marry well and follow in their mother's hard-won footsteps down the golden path.
CeCe Buchanan who has been Joan's best friend since their nannies took them to the same park as toddlers. They were inseparable growing up, making plans as how they were going to live their lives together with their well to do husbands and children. CeCe always put Joan's welfare and demands over her own happiness for as long as she can remember. She's fiercely devoted to Joan and took great pains to hide the facts that her best friend was on a path of destruction at a very early age.
CeCe always felt she owed Joan and her family a great debt for stepping in to help her through a tragedy that she suffered through as a young teenager. But did Joan's parents do this to help CeCe or basically exploiting her love for Joan to their advantage by having the respectable CeCe around to try to keep their wild child in check?
The lines get pretty blurred for poor CeCe when it comes to her relationship with Joan. Is she her caretaker or best friend? She's heard the snide comments between the other's in their little clique, she know's how foolish she must look to everyone else, but they don't understand the Joan she thinks she knows. She will never be able to control Joan's erratic behavior no matter how hard she tries. She's got a life of her own now, one that she's precariously close to losing if she doesn't untangle this unhealthy obsession with Joan for once and for all.

This has to be one of my favorite books to have read this year. I loved the rich characters and I lost myself in the Ms. DiSclafani's description of that beautiful era where everything was just so perfect. I've not read her first novel, "The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls" even though it's been on my TBR list but after reading this one it's certainly moved itself to the top of my list. This is an intriguing, mysterious novel that you can't put down.

I would like to thank www. firsttoread.com for providing me with an e-galley of this novel in exchange for my honest review. ...more

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May 01, 2016 Jill Meyer rated it liked it

I really wish I had liked Anton DiSclafani's new novel, "The After Party", better than I did. Set in the 1950's in Houston's tony River Oaks area, the story of of two socialites, both named Joan at birth. But dark-haired Joan Beirne's name was changed in school to Cece (her middle name) because the other Joan - Joan Fortier was blonde and beautiful. It wasn't that Joan Beirne wasn't good looking - it's just that Joan Fortier was an "it" girl. The girls grew up together and the Fortiers sort of a ...more

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Mar 21, 2016 Diana rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016, coming-of-age, friendship, secrets

I got a digital ARC of this book from the publisher, and was excited to read it as I quite enjoyed The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by this author several years ago. This one was a bit of a disappointment, though. Both books were a pretty fast, fun read, but this one is much less involving, ultimately.

Joan, Joan, Joan-- I got pretty sick of hearing her name, honestly. The narrator, Cece, grows up with her friend Joan, and is completely obsessed with her for reasons that aren't really that a ...more

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Dec 02, 2015 Julie rated it it was amazing

Was not expecting that revelation at all. This was such a quick and wonderful read. What length would you go to for a friend? How would you try to save her when she didn't want to be saved? ...more

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Jun 10, 2016 gingerbread rated it did not like it

This is the worst book I have ever read and I want the last two days back.

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May 26, 2016 Gayle rated it liked it

Full review at: http://everydayiwritethebookblog.com/...

The After Party is a buzzy book this spring, one that I've seen on a few "Summer Must Read" lists, and I jumped at the chance to get the audio version a few weeks ago. I never read DiSclafani's earlier novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls, but had heard great things about it.

The After Party takes place in the mid-1950s in Houston, and it is about two women: CeCe Buchanan, the narrator, and Joan Fortier, her best friend. CeCe and Joa Full review at: http://everydayiwritethebookblog.com/...

The After Party is a buzzy book this spring, one that I've seen on a few "Summer Must Read" lists, and I jumped at the chance to get the audio version a few weeks ago. I never read DiSclafani's earlier novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls, but had heard great things about it.

The After Party takes place in the mid-1950s in Houston, and it is about two women: CeCe Buchanan, the narrator, and Joan Fortier, her best friend. CeCe and Joan grew up together, inseparable. CeCe always admired Joan's wealth and beauty, but felt she fell short on both counts. When CeCe was fifteen, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. Her father had moved out of the house earlier to be with another woman, so CeCe moved into Joan's huge house and was supported by Joan's parents until she reached adulthood and married.

The After Party is about the strange, tortured relationship between CeCe and Joan, which followed a similar pattern: Joan acted out, CeCe tried to tame and protect her, Joan pushed CeCe away, Joan left for some significant period of time, Joan returned without warning and Joan kept CeCe at arm's length but permitted just enough closeness to keep CeCe in her life, but always wanting more. This pattern continued for years. CeCe got married and had a son, but Joan was always a looming presence - or absence - in her life. The book is about CeCe's coming to terms with this imperfect friendship, and her ultimate understanding of why Joan acted the way she did.

So here are my issues with The After Party:

CeCe was frustratingly inconsistent. She'd insist that she didn't care about Joan anymore, that she was through with her, and that she loved her husband and son more than anything, and then a paragraph later she'd contradict herself. I understand that this was DiSclafani's way of conveying Joan's power over CeCe, but it was frustrating as a reader.

I didn't buy into the Joan Fortier mystique. She was self-centered and not a particularly supportive friend. I did understand why CeCe felt so indebted to Joan (I won't spoil that here in the review), but why she was so enthralled, I don't know. This is the type of friendship that runs its course when people grow up.

The book needed more editing. There were certain phrases that were repeated over and over. Aside from my eventual fatigue with hearing the name "Joan" so many times, I also grew tired of hearing CeCe say the same things. Perhaps she was trying to convince herself that she was happy in her life? Whatever the reason, the book needed another good read-through with a red pen.

That said, I do think DiSclafani is a good writer, the repetition aside. She expertly conveyed CeCe's loneliness and her anxiety about her young son, who had not spoken a single word well into his 3s. There were two chapters that I found incredibly moving: when CeCe's mother was dying, and when CeCe meets up with her childhood nanny, ten years later. Those two chapters were excellent. I also liked the author's depiction of high society Houston in the 1950s, and how it trapped women into certain roles and expectations.

But I was angry by the time I finished The After Party - angry at CeCe and angry at the book. ...more

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Feb 03, 2016 DeB MaRtEnS rated it liked it

Shelves: women-s-fiction-of-no-substance, dramatic-fiction, southern-usa, historical-fiction

First, what I enjoyed:
The setting- 1950's Houston, Texas, land of big oil money
The social scene- competitive men and their wives partying extravagantly
The beverages- gimlets, Manhattans, dirty martinis, champagne, aged scotch
The homes- extravagant modern structures with swimming pools, bars and hired help
The cliques- whose currency was based on the latest gossip on each other, especially valuable if about those behaving badly outside their group, and their surprisingly uncomplicated support of ...more

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Mar 26, 2016 Ashley rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, author-female

I received a copy of The After Party by Anton DiScalfani from Edelweiss a few weeks ago but due to their terms I had to hold off on telling you about this book until the month it releases. Now that I can talk about it - go read it! The friendship between the two Joan's (one who was called by her middle name Cecilia) is so intense, it borders on obsession and stalking. Joan Fortier is a beloved socialite and CeeCee, wealthy in her own way, takes it upon herself to be Joan's constant companion, pr ...more

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Feb 13, 2016 Anita rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, books-read-in-2016

Beautifully written in language that takes you into 1950's Houston. I loved the new money the way the young people partied and enjoyed life. The friendship of Cece and Joan, does one really know the other? How well do we understand those we love and admire? Grab this book!! I loved it so much!! ...more

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Quotes from The After Party

“In the end, the details weren’t about beauty or status. They never had been, for me. They were about feeling at home in the world. And Joan hated these details. She thought my existence relentlessly tedious. What she couldn’t see was that the details were life. That was how you loved someone: every day, without fail, over and over.” — 3 likes

“I began to forget. It is either the mind’s greatest mercy or its worst trick: that we forget those we love. If I” — 1 likes

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